A cargo raided off the coast of Sweden last month has now vanished.

Masked men, claiming to be Swedish police, raided the 24 July the Maltese-flagged Arctic Sea with a Russian crew off the coast of Sweden. Now the mystery surrounding the cargo deepens. It has vanished.

The ship was last heard from at the end of last month before it disappeared off the coast of Portugal. The ship was carrying 1.3 million euros worth of timber, bound for Algeria, for Swedish-Finnish forestry firm Stora Enso.

The vessel was due to arrive at an Algerian port on 4 August. The company has no idea of its whereabouts as they haven't got any vital information from the shipping line Solchart Management.

“The shipping line has not told us anything”, says Stora Enso’s Kari Numminen, who is in charge of exports of sawn goods to Algeria, to Finnish daily Helsingin Sanomat.

“Previously this shipping line has always taken care of things. Now there is absolutely no information at all. Naturally, wild theories emerge in such a situation”, he added.

The Russian navy and security police are now trying to locate the ship. Russia has send four ships to the Atlantic in search of the lost vessel Arctic Sea, Russian Defense Ministry told the Itar-Tass news bureau on Monday.